Since Burroughs himself has used the techniques of film in some of his books, notably The Wild Boys (1971), which is structured in accordance with montage editing theory, and The Last Lords of Dutch Schulz (1970), which is subtitled A Fiction in the Form of a Film Script, it was inevitable that an imaginative filmmaker would eventually attempt to make a film version of one of his books. As far back as the 1970s, one of his artistic collaborators Tony Balch spoke of a project to film Naked Lunch, but all of the problems involved in putting even a relatively straightforward film together prevented any progress until 1990. Then, David Cronenberg, the director of The Fly (1987), Videodrome (1983), and The Brood (1979), which dealt with the consequences of biological mutation, wrote a screenplay which was produced by TwentiethCentury Fox studios with an adequate production budget. The studio undoubtedly wanted to capitalize on Burroughs's...